Lamotte Nitrate test Kit

[Mike]

Been having some red cyano lately so I tested with my salifert kit and got something in the range of 10-25ppm. Red flag for me! I tested source waterand it is zero and mixed salt water is still zero. I decided it was time to do a couple things. I gravel vacuumed the SSB and got a lot of detritus out that way and started to skim more on the wet side. I have been feeding heavily so I suspect that is how hte mess started in the first place.

I also decided it was time to move to the next level and get a really good Nitrate test kit. The Lamotte is a bit pricey but so is everything else about this hobby. I used it for hte first time yesterday and got 2ppm Nitrogen-Nitrate which converts to 8.8ppm nitrate. In terms of accuracy I am pretty happy and it is easy to use.

I am happy to report that cyano is going away without using any red slime removers and organics are coming back in line. I got a little distracted with all the LED stuff I think.

[ReeferRob]

Easy as in API easy or Salifert easy?

[Mike]

Salifert east but much more accurate.

[MUCHO REEF]

Thanks for sharing that Mike. Was wondering how reliable and accurate they were.

Gives me an idea for a thread. Don't want to hijack yours, but glad you shared this.

Mucho Reef

[Mike]

I decided to get the Alk test kit too. It is accurate to 2ppm which is far mroe accurate than any kit I have used ever. It is not hard to use the Nitrate kit it just takes 13 minutes total to get a result. The result is easy to read though. Once I get the Alk kit I will let you know how that one works.